Re: UKNM: BBC Advertising and digital TV

[Sean Phelan]

At 1:15 pm +0100 29/6/99, Jamie Unwin wrote:

>I shouldn't even reply to this, but take one look at TV in the states and

>your question is answered.


And neither should I, but here goes...


When I take a look at a magazine store in the states I skip over the miles of

dross and tend to pick up The Economist, Wired, the Red Herring and maybe

the New Yorker or Granta if I think I need a life outside work.


Come to think of it, this is the same selection I'd be picking in the UK. The

main difference is that I would be skipping over completely different dross.


When I watch TV, I tend to watch almost exactly the same programs in the US

as the UK.  The main difference is that Have I Got News For You isn't available

in the US, even on PBS, and there is also the annoying way that you end up

several episodes ahead/behind, and after one week everybody in Chicago Hope

seems to be bonking a completely different member of the cast.


But enough about me. My point is that high quality programming has a fairly

global (albeit language-dependent) market, no matter what medium is used to

deliver it.  Advertisers are very, very keen to target such a market (just

look at the adverts in, say, the Harvard Business Review, the New Yorker or

even Cigar Afficionado... then look at their rate cards!!).


If the BBC is going to take advertising in an increasingly crowded market

then I would expect it to go upmarket, rather than downmarket. The BBC has

a strong global brand which, in most people's mind is associated (rightly

or wrongly) with upmarket programming.  And that's where the money is.


Cheers

Sean


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Sean Phelan

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